Sept 16 (Reuters) – The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index fell on Wednesday, pressured by a dip in capesize vessel rates.
* The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities and reflects rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, shed eight points, or 0.6%, at 1,281.
* The capesize index fell 33 points, or 1.7%, to 1,889.
* Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport cargoes of 170,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes including iron ore and coal, declined $278 to $15,664.
* Dalian iron ore futures slipped over 5% on Wednesday as rising supply and declining steel margins in China triggered sell-offs.
* The panamax index edged up three points to 1,299, snapping a 12-session losing streak.
* Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, was up $26 at $11,692.
* The supramax index rose nine points to 921 points, while the handysize index slipped one point to 553. (Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
